Would you say that once you know Spanish...

[spacetimecontinuum]

Italian and French become exponentially easier to learn??? They call these the "Romance Languages" I believe, what do you think the foundation language is for making the others easier to pick up. Yes I know about Latin and Greek etc, but for the polyglots amongst you, do you think the question I posed is correct?

For instance I know there is some cross-pollination with some of the Scandinavian languages like Swedish, Danish, Norwegian etc and they are able to make themselves understood to one an another, even if just on a basic level.

Is this true if you're a Spanish speaker who visits Italy or France?

[JessiFox]

Hm, well I haven't tried to learn French yet, but I definitely think Spanish has been a helpful foundation for learning Italian, as they do have a lot of similarities. Sometimes I get tripped up on it though, because I'll instinctively go with the Spanish term where there are definitely some key differences between the two. But overall I do think it's helpful.

[spacetimecontinuum]

Hm, well I haven't tried to learn French yet, but I definitely think Spanish has been a helpful foundation for learning Italian, as they do have a lot of similarities. Sometimes I get tripped up on it though, because I'll instinctively go with the Spanish term where there are definitely some key differences between the two. But overall I do think it's helpful.

Yes, I imagine that Spanish and Italian words have similar prefixes.

Or I could just get on in life by speaking the way many British people have for decades, by just adding an O onto the end of every English word, to communicate when they go on holiday.

"Errr, excusee, where is the toilet-o, ahh and the restaurant-o, oh and would you so kind as to get me a beer-o?

Gosh, how have our European brothers and sisters tolerated us for so long, lol.

[Determined2014]

Hm, well I haven't tried to learn French yet, but I definitely think Spanish has been a helpful foundation for learning Italian, as they do have a lot of similarities. Sometimes I get tripped up on it though, because I'll instinctively go with the Spanish term where there are definitely some key differences between the two. But overall I do think it's helpful.

Once you know Spanish then you know Italian, like you said, they so much resemble, like you said they so much resemble, sometimes it takes me a while to really figure out when someone is speaking it, but through their different accents, then it is becomes easy to tell them apart.

[Baburra]

My native language is close to Spanish and when I found out that Italian was also close to it, I looked into it further and found a lot of similar words and I began to see the language differently. I think I would even have an easier time with the accent than most people because the rolls of the tongue are somewhat similar. Though, I don't doubt for a second that the time, effort, and dedication necessary to learn a whole new language remains the same even with this slight head start.

[jbepp]

My native language is Spanish and I'm learning French. From what I've seen, both languages share many words and even some idioms could be translated literally between the two languages and the meaning would remain intact. So I'd say yes, knowing at least one romance language makes the others easier to learn.

French and Spanish share SOME grammar rules, but for the most part you're gonna have to memorize a new set of rules. And someone who speaks Spanish would never understand what French people say simply because the French accent is quite hard to get used to.

[gmckee1985]

Didn't know that there were a lot of similarities between French and Spanish. Thought they would be pretty different in terms of the phrasing and accent you put on the words. But that's a relief to hear. Maybe it'll make it easier for me to pick up on the two languages over time. Focusing on Spanish for now, but definitely open to learning French in due time.

[spacetimecontinuum]

Speaking of which, whatever happened to ESPERANTO?, this was an artificial language which combined many European languages, are there any speakers if this on this forum?

[DancingLady]

I am not sure.  I think Spanish and Italian are more closely related than Spanish and French, which don't sound anything like each other.  I studied some French and I really have not had much luck picking up any Spanish.  I work with some people who speak it, but I don't understand what they are saying. 

[ariana4]

I don't know the answer to your question, OP, but I have heard many times that learning a romance language becomes easier after learning one or more romance languages. I've heard that Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian are extremely similar. I studied French for years, and I can somewhat make out the meaning of Spanish sentences/words while reading. Listening to Spanish makes little sense, however. Because of this I am trying to learn Spanish. It's not as hard as it is learning Japanese for me, but it's not necessarily 'easy'. However, this may be because I have been slacking 

[NATASHA]

Yes I agree, that once you know one of the European languages like Spanish, Italian or French it is so easy to pick up and learn the others. Greek is difficult but Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and also French are much easier once you know one of them.

[mscolumbia]

I certainly hope so.  I've always heard that this was true since both languages have a lot in common. That is the main reason i decided to learn Spanish first. Once I have that tackled I'm going to move on to French. I've got my fingers crossed in hopes that learning Spanish will make it easier to get a handle on the language of love.  :love:

[Meerkat]

Definitely. Like learning Mandarin, all the eastern languages get easier.

My mother, for this reason, is learning French and Spanish side-by-side.

[Dora M]

Well, you could also say that once you know French, you have a better understanding of Spanish. I learnt French many years ago and forgot most of it. But when I started learning Spanish, I suddenly remembered many of the basic structures of the French language, and I could see their similarity in Spanish.

As for Italian, I would say that there are big differences in the way sentences are structures, but there are similar sounding words and vocabulary.

[Melee]

I've studied French and Spanish in school (not yet fluent in either ) and Italian on my own, and in my opinion I can see if one knows Spanish it could help with Italian, but helping with learning French? 

Not in my particular case. 

I suppose if I became fluent in either Spanish or Italian and then tried to become fluent in French, I might notice a difference.  The French language has certain words that my tongue struggles to pronounce, much more trouble with the French tongue than I have with Spanish or Italian.

[SamClemensMT]

Spanish is a relatively easy language to learn.  Once you know the phonetics, and grammatical syntax it's just a matter of practice and exposure  to native speakers of the language.  In no time you'll find yourself speaking with relative ease.

[SpringBreeze]

I've studied french, italian, and spanish and i've seen some portuguese. I can say that italian, spanish and portuguese are the most similar out of the those 4. So, if you study one, it'll definitely easy to pick up the other 2.

[Ruth]

I am not sure whether I will.  It is possible for the similarities among them.